Great train journey's of the world

---

Oh pooh! I hate unreliable web access. I just wrote a big journal entry, clicked save and it fouled up. Grrr.

Ok... so lets start again... Sunday morning I woke up much freshed and finally over my jet lag. It's amazing how little your brain functions in those circumstances (and mine has trouble at the best of times, without added complications). At 8.15am I cought the Trans Alpine Express at Christchurch to go through the Southern Alps to get to Greymouth for 12.45pm. First stop was Springfield (D'oh!), then through the Canterbury Plains. Things really started to get interesting though when heading closer to the Southern Alps and seeing the mountains. It was a lovely sunny, fairly clear day and the mountain tops were uneasonably covered in snow, which made them all the more beautiful. The train was spacious and comfortable and had an open air viewing carriage. There was a roof but no windows. As you can imagine, it was very windy and therefore very cold, so you had to wrap up warm. I hope I got some fab photo's (yes, I will put some up when I get to a computer that has decent software, these places can be a bit limited). The train stoppped at Arthur's Pass for a stretch of the legs and a chance to take some more pics (like I need an excuse!). We then went through rainforest before getting to Greymouth, which is at the mouth of the River Grey. I don't think you appreciate the terms "lush" or "verdant" until you see something like this. The whole train ride was just awesomely stunning and I used up most of my camera battery taking pics. I don't think I even have enough room on my laptop's hard drive to store all of these....

I spetn about an hour sorting out car hire (note to self, don't leave it to the last minute - I blame the jet lag for giving me swiss cheese memory). I had lunch in Greymouth, sitting up by the river. It was windy, but sunny and nice. The supermarkets here, New World, have some great produce, including sprouted alfalfa, mung beans and other hippy stuff I like. At a normal supermarket, how cool is that? Then I drove down the coast to the town I was staying in that night, Hokitika. They drive on the left here, so that was cool. The interesting part though, was when the rail line that rain adjacent to the road, used the same bridge as the road traffic. Ther are no lights, no alarms, no gates. It's quite scary at first as bridge is for rail and road traffic. Also, when I finally did pluck up the courage to drive across it, the tyres follow the rails as they are about the same width apart, so you feel like you are getting stuck in them. Just driving to one side is fine, and I soon got used to it, but a bit weird at first. The drive down the coast was gorgeous; more of that lush greenary, peaks of roaring sea on the coast. Lovely. Most of the radio stations here are either Radio Jackie style local stations or a Heart FM middle of the road kinda thing - not too hiddeous.

---

« Previous Entry Next Entry »

Additional photos below

Photos: 4, Displayed: 4

Photos

Arthur's Pass
Me at Arthur's Pass, on teh Trans Alpine Express journey.

Southern Alps
Taken from the viewing cab.

Southern Alps
Going through a tunnel!

Bridge
See - it's just strange!

Comments

[Mike]

LOL
LOL Arthurs pass......